Whose Shoulders Does Obama Really Stand Upon?
Not Reverend Wright’s. Not all the old lefties cum bomb-planners who have faded.
No, Obama stands on the shoulders of these brave souls who are most often forgotten by name, rarely referred to in media or by politicians, but souls, both black and white, who literally laid down their lives so that people of all colors could continually strive to implement new ways to live together without one or the other having to die…. like these dear ones did.
Here is part of the Civil Rights Martyrs’ Role Call in a place of peace, far, far from the Earth:
1 Louis Allen– A farmer shot to death Jan. 31, 1964, in Liberty, Miss., after witnessing the murder of Herbert Lee, a civil rights worker.
2 Willie Brewster–A factory worker who died July 16, 1965, in Anniston, Ala., from a nightrider’s bullet.
3 Benjamin Brown–A truck driver and civil rights worker killed May 12, 1967, when police fired on demonstrators in Jackson, Miss.
4 James Chaney–A civil rights worker abducted and shot at point-blank range June 21, 1964, by Ku Klux Klan members in Philadelphia, Miss.
5 Addie Mae Collins– A young schoolchild murdered Sept. 15, 1963, in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.
6 Vernon Dahmer– A community leader was murdered Jan. 10, 1966, from a firebomb in Hattiesburg, Miss., after volunteering to pay Black voters’ poll taxes.
7 Jonathan Daniels– A white seminary Student shot dead Aug. 14, 1965, by a deputy sheriff in Hayneville, Ala.
8 Henry H. DEE– A civil rights volunteer abducted, beaten and thrown into the Mississippi River in Natchez, Miss., May 2, 1964, by the Ku Klux Klan.
9 Cpl. Roman Ducksworth Jr.–A military policeman shot to death April 9, 1962, in Taylorsville, after refusing a police order to sit in the back of the bus.
10 Willie Edwards Jr.–A deliveryman killed Jan. 23, 1957, near Montgomery, Ala., when the Klan forced him to jump from a bridge into the Alabama River.
11 Medgar Evers–A civil rights leader shot to death June 12, 1963, in the driveway of his home in Jackson, Miss.
12 Andrew Goodman–A civil rights worker abducted and shot at point-blank range June 21, 1964, by the Klan in Philadelphia, Miss.
13 Paul Guihard–A French news reporter shot in the back Sept. 30, 1962, during race riots at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss.
14 Samuel Hammond Jr.–A South Carolina State College student fatally shot Feb. 8, 1968, when police fired on demonstrators in Orangeburg, S.C.
15. Jimmie Lee Jackson–A farmer died Feb. 18, 1965, after being beaten and shot directly into the gut by state troopers following a march in Selma, Ala.
16 Wharlest Jackson–An NAACP treasurer in Natches, Miss., killed Feb. 18, 1965, by a bomb after his promotion to a job once reserved for whites.
17 Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights leader, assassinated April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn.
18 Rev. Bruce Klunder–A White minister from Cleveland, Ohio, purposely run down by a bulldozer operator April 7, 1964, while protesting a segregated school.
19 Rev. George Lee–A minister in Belzoni, Miss., died May 7, 1955, of gunshot wounds after organizing a voter-registration drive.
20 Herbert Lee–A cotton farmer and voter registration organizer shot in the head Sept. 25, 1961, by a white state legislator in Liberty, Miss.
21 Viola Gregg Liuzzo–A white civil rights worker from Detroit, fatally shot in the head March 25, 1965, by Klan members near Selma, Ala.
22 Denise McNair–A schoolgirl killed Sept. 15, 1963, in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.
23 Delano H. Middleton–A high school student fatally shot Feb. 8, 1968, when police fired on demonstrators in Orangeburg, S.C.
24 Charles E. Moore–A civil rights volunteer abducted, beaten and thrown into the Mississippi River near Natchez, Miss., May 2, 1964, by the Klan.
25 Oneal Moore–A Black deputy sheriff fatally shot after his nightly patrol June 2, 1965, during an ambush by ‘nightriders’ near Varnado, La.
26 William Moore–A white mail carrier from Baltimore murdered April 23, 1963, in Attala, Ala., during his one-man march against segregation.
27 Mack Charles Parker–A truck driver accused of raping a white woman was lynched April 25, 1959, by masked white men in Poplarville, Miss.
28 Lt. Col. Lemuel Penn–A U.S. Army reservist fatally shot July 11, 1964, by the Klan while driving near Colbert, Ga.
29 Rev. James Reeb–A White minister from Boston beaten to death Mar. 11, 1965, on the streets of Selma, Ala., during a civil rights march.
30 John Earl Reese–A teenager slain Oct. 22, 1955, by ‘nightriders’ who opposed improvements regarding a black school in Mayflower, Texas.
31 Carole Robertson–A schoolgirl murdered Sept. 15, 1963, in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.
32 Michael Schwerner–A civil rights worker abducted and shot at point-blank range June 21, 1964, by the Klan in Philadelphia, Miss.
33 Henry E. Smith–A South Carolina State College student fatally shot Feb. 8, 1968, when police fired shotguns at demonstrators in Orangeburg, S.C.
34 Lamar Smith–A prominent farmer fatally shot Aug. 13, 1955, in broad daylight in Brookhaven, Miss., after organizing black voters.
35 Emmett Louis Till–A Chicago teenager lynched Aug. 28, 1955, for allegedly “flirting” with a white woman in Money, Miss.
36 Clarence Triggs–A bricklayer shot in the head July 30, 1966, by ‘nightriders’ in Bogalusa, La.
37 Virgil Ware–A youngster fatally shot Sept. 16, 1963, by a white teenager while Ware was simply riding his bicycle in Birmingham, Ala.
38 Cynthia Wesley–A schoolgirl murdered Sept. 15, 1963, in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.
39 Ben Chester White–A caretaker shot June 10, 1966 by Klan members in Natchez, Miss.
40 Samuel Younge Jr.–A college student shot Jan. 3, 1966, by a Tuskegee, Ala., gas station attendant following a dispute over a ‘whites-only’ restroom.
I don’t think it’s William Ayers… I think Obama’s bare feet are held firmly on the shoulders of the souls listed above, held there by those young and old hands whose lives were cut short by push-hatred.
Many more names belong to this list; these are only 40 out of thousands of murders, thousands of maimings that took decades to be brought to Justice.
Obama is not that Justice.
We are.
Obama stands on all the shoulders of all those, living right now, and those long deceased, who did not– or learned not to—viciously impede or aggress on others unjustly, nor remain silent about those who did.
So do we also stand on those same shoulders of these living and these dead.
I think we surely do.
They, not ego, ambition or cleverness, are the true progenitors of our New Day.
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CODA
A monument to Civil Rights martyrs with these 40 names, selected out of thousands, stands in Montgomery, Alabama. Built by Southern Poverty Law Center in 2005, the attendant Center details the blood and bones lost by ordinary people who, armed only with a sense of Justice, braved to walk straight into the sights of men and women who were fully armed with guns, rifles, shotguns, nooses and bats…. those many who hid under sheets and inside satin and behind public office, et al.
The Center continues to call on visitors to “continue working for justice, equality and human rights.” I think that is so wise, for as one can see, even if one has lived only two decades of life so far… that ‘rights’ often, over time, deteriorate into ‘wrongs’ again in some part.
A seeming expected attrition, so that rights for all, must be fought for all, all over again… and on a cyclical basis.
The martyr’s memorial was designed by Maya Lin, who designed the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in Washington, DC.
It is a circular granite table with the names and events of that time engraved as spokes, telling the heroic saga. It is washed with water continually… Just as using blessing water for cleansing and reconciliation are spoken about in Holy writings, worldwide.
Following the blessing/ repair metaphor, likewise, if you put your hand into the water streaming over the table, the water flows around your hand, making a slight ripple… but then the water ‘heals itself,’ and flows smoothly, untroubled, once again.
Carved deeply into the stone above the table are these words, echoing Martin King’s favored ones,
“…until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream…”